Deepavali and Cops

Why? Why? Why do I get to see traffic cops milling around the city of Chennai only during the festive season? As devoted as they are to their work, you can spot these 40 something Sergeants, standing right in the middle of all the four-road intersections; come rain or shine. And mind you, Chennai doesn’t see a lot of rain, but during Deepavali, the city sees an awful lot of rains. And I choose to call it ‘awful’ since Chennai rains aren’t really friendly.

So what really is with Deepavali and traffic cops? They sure aren’t helping regulate traffic. Nooooooooooo!!!! (That’s like the longest No.) If there’s anything they’d ease out, it would only be of a little extra buck from your pocket. And that’s precisely what one of them wanted from me yesterday.

I was at a traffic light waiting with the impatient crowd to take a turn into Taramani to get to work last morning. Oh, did I tell you I’m brilliant? You’ll see! I took off in my car in the second gear and needless to say, the car wouldn’t move an inch and it stopped, leaving all the vehicles behind mine honking away. Ain’t I brilliant? I told ‘ya!!!

Anyway, good ol’ uncle spotted me and asked me to pull over. I did as told. He came over and asked me for my license. I gave him that perplexed expression and went “What license?” Can you imagine the look on his face? Nope, not the “Are you freaking kidding me?” look. It was the “O’course I know!” look. Out came daddy to my rescue from the passenger seat and spoke to uncle for a couple of minutes. He got back into the car and didn’t utter a word. I drove off in jittery silence. Later, I asked him if maybe he should take over. He said it was nothing and that I shouldn’t worry about it.

Dad waits till I drive into my office, park the car in the allotted slot in the second deck, and then artfully says “Now that he has noted down the plate, he’s gonna catch you another time when I’m not around!” :

PS: I’m getting my license sooooooon.